Greg Monroe – 27 points, 14 rebounds and two assists.If the Detroit Pistons can get Monroe to play with the same assertiveness that he did today in the regular season they have a Rookie of the Year candidate. When Monroe is aggressive and looking to attack he's a difficult matchup for any big man in the league. Monroe looked to score nearly every time he caught the ball today and was an absolute monster on the glass. Although his team came up short, Monroe was simply spectacular.

John Kuester needs to keep the video of this game readily available to show to Monroe the next time he falls back into being passive.

No big man in the 2010 draft class has a more aesthetically pleasing offensive repertoire, something that was captured on a single play in the first half when he delivered a no-look interior pass in the paint, through traffic, to his baseline cutter. When the ball clanked out, Monroe -- a prolific collegiate rebounder -- grabbed it, then muscled his way to the rim through a scrum of Knick defenders for a basket-and-one. It was an assertive possession for a guy sometimes unfairly tagged with the soft label.

Monroe reads defenses inordinately well. Unlike so many young centers and power forwards, he's able to keep the ball moving. For a Detroit team that finished 21st in offensive efficiency and 23rd in assist rate, those gifts will help unclog the morass in the Pistons' half court.

He won'7 catch 10 rebounds per game in his first season, remember he will be playing the C position most of the time, He will be boxed out with ease by many many Centers in the league and his lack of a vertical jump will keep him out of catch 10 rebounds in his first year.

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Who are these monsters centers in the league that will make Monroe look like a child? Aside from Elbowmaster Howard, The Big Bynum and Perkman, who is out there that's a true center? Dampier? Chandler? Okafor? Collins brothers? All those guys have gaping holes in their games that Monroe can exploit. Aren't most teams in the league getting by with a PF playing center anyways?

I think the kid will do just fine. He'll make many rookie mistakes and probably get in foul trouble frequently, but he'll do fine.

The problem I have with Monroe is that he will be defended by players with a lot much more of body on him.. and length.. and jump. So, Until he discover a way to score properly (maybe in 2 o 3 years..) his FG% will be low.

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I don't buy that necessarily. Scoring at a high FG% is about shot selection, and being crafty with the ball. A guy like Monroe, who has a good bball IQ, and can dish the ball when he gets in tough situations, has an advantage.

I don't see any way he is going to shoot as low as 42%. My guess would be right around 47-49%.

My guess:
26mpg
9.6ppg
5.9rpg
1.4apg
0.6bpg
1.1spg
48% FG
70% FT

Seeing what kind of minutes he gets and how involved he is offensively will be the number 1 storyline I'm watching this season. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised, and he'll get 30+mpg, and plenty of touches, but I'm doubting it.

I have my doubts about Monroe.. Unitl I don't see him in october or november in REAL NBA GAMES I won't believe any reports about him from ESPN or other sites..

Come on people.. you should know better... According to a lot of scouts Darko Milicic was one of the best players ever.

It's a summer league game we are talking about, Donte Greene scores 40 points here a few years ago.

I understand that, based on the lack of news of the management, not even rumors of trades or whatever, we get very excited at a great game from our 7th pick (who seems to be the only one who can take us out of the hell we are going into)..

Don't get me wrong, please, I like Monroe a lot and I don't blame no one from draft him, I think he was the right choice.. but don't expect him to be an All-star, at least, don't believe it until I see him in real NBA games in November.. (sorry for the negativity lol)

I just don't want to believe all those scouts who based on a few games from Monroe in the sumemr league are already saying that he will be an All-Star in 5, 6 years.. Don't want false hope.

Who are these monsters centers in the league that will make Monroe look like a child? Aside from Elbowmaster Howard, The Big Bynum and Perkman, who is out there that's a true center? Dampier? Chandler? Okafor? Collins brothers? All those guys have gaping holes in their games that Monroe can exploit. Aren't most teams in the league getting by with a PF playing center anyways?

I think the kid will do just fine. He'll make many rookie mistakes and probably get in foul trouble frequently, but he'll do fine.

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I agree, there aren't many true centers that are THAT GOOD, and GM isn't small , he's about 250, that's almost ideal for a C nowadays. I think he'll have an easier time guarding centers than PF and hybrid PF's, and an easier time scoring on C's as well, as long as he gets his share of touches.

For all the "I wish we got Cousins over Monroe" talk, I would say Cousins is showing a few more red flags than Monroe at this point. He's shooting 40% (less considering he is 0-for-6 in the game going right now), and 5.2 TOs.

For all the "I wish we got Cousins over Monroe" talk, I would say Cousins is showing a few more red flags than Monroe at this point. He's shooting 40% (less considering he is 0-for-6 in the game going right now), and 5.2 TOs.

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tried to find it but can't.... but read a comment about him at the draft he was in the same hotel as Durant and as he walked by Durant in the lobby he looked at him and told him to not waste his time (Durant was signing autographs). Durant was said to have just sighed at him and kept on signing things for fans. Durant is sooo the anti James, the more I hear about him the more I feel the need to cheer for him to succeed.

Cousins very well may have the most talent of not only the big men in the draft but of anybody. But I think his hi reward also has so many red flags for a bust or a burn hard and fast and be done in 3 years.

Horrible game for cousins shooting 3-15 from the field in 30mins. It seems less and less likely that he'll be the sudden impact ROY candidate that he was hyped up to be despite those monster early games. Not a good sign to be declining rather than improving as the SL progresses...

Well Summer League is over and what have we learned
Edgar Sosa and Mac Koshwal were solid summer league pickups, I think we should consider waiving Wilcox and inking Koshwal and Sosa
Terrico White is a pretty good ball player. I think we may have looked at his athletic ability and wanted to see some Speedy Gonzalez type of player running all over the court at 100mph and jumping all over the place, but no, he's actually a freak who plays under control and within himself, the freakness comes out only when neccessary.
Summers, will he make the squad this year? As big as he is, he's basically a big shooter, sorry Brap, he's not Karl Malone Lite.
JJ is JJ, no fluke here folks, just one good ball player full of energy and hustle.
Austin Daye can play, but will he? Time for Tay to be moved for a pack of Jolly Ranchers so this kid can get on the floor. As vesatile as his game is, we should be playing more Big Ball not Small Ball.
Greg Monroe got better each game over the cousre of 5 games. He showed his strengths and weaknesses and it seems like he has a huge repetoire that should only expand over the course of his career. I expect GM to be one of those rooks whose contracts get done after their 3rd year so that they NEVER hit the free agent market.
Lots of stuff to look forward to this fall in training camp, I for one can not wait!!!! (Hopefully Tay and/or Rip won't still be on the roster).

Edgar Sosa and Mac Koshwal were solid summer league pickups, I think we should consider waiving Wilcox and inking Koshwal and Sosa

If the team is going to consider a true PG, I'm not sure if that will be counter-productive to the type of team we could/should/will? build, which runs a lot of the offense through Monroe and Daye/Tay, and which has PG's who are great at driving and cutting to the rim. It also would cut into my current dream of White becoming a better all around version of Bynum, and a guy who can be interchangeable in a starting backcourt with Stuckey and Daye.

Terrico White is a pretty good ball player. I think we may have looked at his athletic ability and wanted to see some Speedy Gonzalez type of player running all over the court at 100mph and jumping all over the place, but no, he's actually a freak who plays under control and within himself, the freakness comes out only when neccessary.

Nice. He's really intruiging. I'll bet the Pistons want him to become a Bynum-like aggressive guard AND play under control.

Summers, will he make the squad this year? As big as he is, he's basically a big shooter, sorry Brap, he's not Karl Malone Lite.

I too am wondering how he fits. I think Summers can be a really good player in this league. But I see him as needing to play with a great D center shotblocker type. Still, I see him as a big scorer

JJ is JJ, no fluke here folks, just one good ball player full of energy and hustle.

Austin Daye can play, but will he? Time for Tay to be moved for a pack of Jolly Ranchers so this kid can get on the floor. As vesatile as his game is, we should be playing more Big Ball not Small Ball.

We can do that by playing him at SG and having the offense initiated by him a lot.

Greg Monroe got better each game over the cousre of 5 games. He showed his strengths and weaknesses and it seems like he has a huge repetoire that should only expand over the course of his career. I expect GM to be one of those rooks whose contracts get done after their 3rd year so that they (Hopefully Tay and/or Rip won't still be on the roster).

It's time to build the team by assuming that Monroe and Daye and JJ and Stuckey will be fixtures. Find the complimentary pieces to them.

The one thing I noticed about Terrico White is that he doesn't play quite like they said he did in the reports. He was compared to Wade and Stuckey, but he doesn't attack the basket like those two at all. He's more of a jump shooter, and he has good form on the jump shot. Doesn't seem like much of a passer though, so I'm not sure about his aspirations to become a PG.

If we're gonna be bad we might as well be young.
I was impressed enough with Sosa and Koshwal to offer these guys some low-rent contracts to see if they can stick. I'm more impressed with Sosa than Koshwal.

There might be some other summer leagers (from other teams) that might be worth looking at as well.

If we're gonna be bad we might as well be young.
I was impressed enough with Sosa and Koshwal to offer these guys some low-rent contracts to see if they can stick. I'm more impressed with Sosa than Koshwal.

There might be some other summer leagers (from other teams) that might be worth looking at as well.